


The Book of Demons

by ElizabethPearce



Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Fantasy, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25665730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizabethPearce/pseuds/ElizabethPearce
Summary: Clary wandered into a hidden bookstore one day and found an old, untitled book. She brought it home only to find out it wasn't just a random fantasy book with an old cover. Everything started with that book. Jace, Izzy, Alec, and Magnus had been looking for it for over a year until they finally traced it back to Clary. That book was the key to defeating the demon army and preventing the end of the world, and Clary was the only one who can read it. **My First Fic!!!** (also posted on fanfiction.net and wattpad)
Relationships: Clary Fray/Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Simon Lewis & Isabelle Lightwood
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! this is my first fic. I hope you like it. I'm still working on it to try and make it better. I'll update as often as possible. Let me know if you have any suggestions!!

“Where did you find that,?” the old man said, he put his glasses on from where they hung around his neck. He stared at the dirty, beat up cover of the book Clary had put on the counter. “I’ve never seen this before.”

  
Clary had come across this bookstore when she decided to walk a different way home from her art classes. It was hidden between large, brick apartment buildings. She would have almost missed it, if she hadn’t been paying attention. She didn’t have much homework, so she went in to see if she could find something to try and read later. 

  
The shelves were packed to the brim with old books. Clary picked a random book off the shelf with a faded brown leather with crinkled pages that makes it look like it had been underwater. There’s no title or author on the cover, just a tie wrapped around it to hold it together. 

  
“Someone must have left it on the shelf accidentally. You can take it. It’s not mine to sell.” The man handed her the book. “Thanks,” Clary responded.

  
Clary walked back to her apartment she shared with her best friend, Simon. She opened the door to find him lying on the couch eating pizza from the box balanced on his knees.

  
“What’s up,” Simon said as he shoved half a piece of pizza in his mouth. “Nothing much. I’m just tired. I think I’m gonna steal some of your pizza and go to bed,” Clary said as she took two pieces of pizza out of the box. 

  
“So you’re not gonna stay up super late watching Criminal Minds with me like you promised?”

  
“Nope.” Clary mumbled with her mouth full of pizza. 

  
“Ugh. Fine.” Simon said as he turned on Netflix. “But you’re gonna have to catch up to where I am on your own.”

  
“I think I’ll live.” Clary yelled back at him while walking to her room. 

  
Clary was happy to finally be alone. She just wanted to go to sleep and not wake up for at least 9 hours. She climbed onto her bed after changing into her sweatpants and pulled her new book out of her backpack. 

  
Clary opened the book and started reading, hoping it would help her fall asleep. She never opened the book in the bookstore. She only looked at the cover and decided it was creepy looking enough to be interesting. She had no idea what she would find inside. 

  
Clary opened the book to find all the words were all handwritten in black ink along the old pages. At first, she couldn’t make out what the text was saying, but then the words faded into English. Clary thought it was her tired eyes playing a trick on her, so she started to read. 

  
What she found inside the leather bound covers of the book scared her more than she had expected. It seemed to be a giant instruction manual on how to kill demons, mainly large amounts of them. How to use a so-called “seraph blade” to quickly defend yourself against them. Clary couldn’t stop herself from reading. She had no idea how to process the information she was learning. At some point, the book ended up being thrown across the room to land in the corner. Clary didn’t dare go to pick it back up. She turned off her light and went to bed. She hoped the book would be gone by the next morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention that the characters are bit older in this fic. They're in their early twenties (around the ages they would be in when going to college). Hopefully jace, izzy, and alec will be introduced in the next chapter. Thanks for reading!!

_ They’re surrounding us. We are alone and weaponless. I can feel my hand being crushed by someone else's. I wonder whose it was. I don’t dare turn to look to see who it is. I can’t turn my eyes away from the impending doom that awaits me. I can feel the heat coming off of the hundreds of horrific creatures that are getting closer to us by the second. The stranger next to me started to whisper. I cannot hear what he is saying. I don’t care. I looked away for one moment, and I felt claws scratch my face and something burning my skin.  _

Clary woke up in her bed, her body covered in a layer of sweat with her covers kicked onto the floor. “Another nightmare,” she said to herself. She got nightmares like this almost every night. She had talked to doctors and therapists and no solution given to her ever worked. She had learned to deal with them, and tried not let them get to her. Sometimes it worked, other times she was scarred by the fear they caused.

Clary walked to her kitchen to find Simon already awake and making himself breakfast. 

“Another nightmare?” he asked as he took in her disheveled appearance. 

“What else would it be,” Clary defeatedly sighed. Simon was the only person who knew about her nightmares. He was the only one she trusted not to judge her for them. 

It was Saturday which meant no places to be. She could stay home and lay on the couch in her sweatpants to watch netflix with Simon all day. 

“I think we should stay in today. I’ll watch criminal minds with you. I have no inclination to go outside and socialize with anybody but you.”

Simon laughed, “As much as I would like to do that with you, I have to go to lunch with my mom and my sister. The invitation is still open to you if you want to come.”

“Oh crap. I forgot about that.” Clary couldn’t help to feel sad about her made up plans to do nothing all day. “I guess I’ll go with you. It’s not like I have to be anywhere anyway.”

“Great! I’m sure my mom and Rebecca will be thrilled that you’re coming.” 

“I miss them a lot, besides Rebecca is definitely cooler than you.”

“Hey! I find myself to be one of the coolest dudes I know.” Simon said as he flung the dish towel he was holding at her. 

“I’m sure you do,” Clary responded as she walked back into her room to get dressed for the day. 

Only then she had remembered the forgotten book that she had flung into the corner. She looked over at it with its pages open facing down on the floor. She decided it would be best to not touch it for a little while longer to try and keep those creepy demon killing rituals out of her head. 

Simon and Clary walked to a cafe a couple blocks away from their apartment. This was Clary’s favorite part of the city. The cafe was filled with comfortable chairs and couches, and plants were hanging from the ceilings and decorated the walls and windowsills. There was a large brown bookshelf on the back wall that anyone could take from to read while you sit and drink your coffee. It made her feel calm in her life that was so filled with unreachable expectations and stress.

Rebecca and Simon's mom, Elaine, hugged them both when they walked in. They expressed their joy of not seeing each other for so long. Elaine and Rebecca moved out of New York City into some New Jersey suburbs a couple months ago to get a change of pace in their lives. A change that shocked both Clary and Simon, but Elaine seemed to be happier in her new home, and that’s all that mattered. 

“How is art school going, Clary?” Elaine asked. 

“It’s good. There’s a lot more work than I expected, but it’s helping me grow as an artist. I just hope I don’t get burnt out too fast.”

“That makes sense,” Elaine said after taking a sip of her coffee, “You have to make sure that you’re taking some time away from working on it to enjoy other things, so you won’t get as burnt out as easily. What about you, Simon? Have you actually been doing your homework?”

Started by his mother's blunt question, Simon replied, “If you must know, yes I am. I am spending way too much money on college to screw around, and not learn all the things that I am being taught.” His mother looked at him with disbelief before turning the conversation over to Rebecca, who had many things to say about her new boyfriend. 

The lunch was as normal as anyone would have expected. The light conversation and bickering of the family made Clary happy that she decided to not lay on her couch all day. Although, her mind kept travelling back to that leather bound book in her corner. She wanted to find out what else was in it. If it was some sort of prophecy or just a load of crap. She decided that once lunch was over she would walk back to her apartment to grab the book and walk back to read in her favorite chair in the cafe. She thought she would feel safer if she was surrounded by people in a place she was comfortable in, as if it would protect her from the demons inside that book.


	3. Chapter 3

Clary returned to the cafe after retrieving the book from her room. She ordered a chai latte and settled into a large chair in a partly secluded corner of the cafe. She had enough privacy to feel comfortable, but in a public enough place to be safe from the book demons. Clary continued to read through the gore of the chapters, one ritual of demon killing after another. She thought it was going to make her sick, so she decided to stop and go up to the cafe counter to get something to eat. 

A new girl that Clary had never seen before was at the counter. She has long, sleek black hair and her stilettos along with her already tall figure made her tower over Clary. Clary thought she was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. The girl greeted Clary with a smile and said, “How can I help you?”

“Can I have a blueberry muffin, please?” Clary responded. “I’ve never seen you here before, did you just start working here?”

“Yea, it’s my first day,” the tall goddess replied as she placed the muffin on a plate. 

“I’m Clary,” she said as she took the muffin, “It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Izzy,” the girl replied. 

Clary decided to make small talk with the new barista instead of returning to her scary book. Izzy was much nicer than she expected. She seemed intimidating at first because of the way she walked and talked with more confidence than Clary had ever seen. Izzy was aware of her beauty and the effect she had on the people around her, but she was always kind to others. Clary couldn’t help but think about Simon while she talked with Izzy. Clary thought that Izzy and Simon would be perfect for each other. Simon needed a girl who could keep him on his toes. 

To Clary’s surprise, Izzy went to the same art school as her. They almost squealed with excitement when they realized this. After only knowing each other for a whole 45 minutes, the girls decided that they had to sit next to each other in the classes they shared. Clary thought that it would be nice to have someone to walk to class with every morning, so they arranged to meet each other every day at the cafe to walk together. 

After a long conversation, Izzy’s work duties interrupted their blooming friendship. Clary sat back down in her corner with her blueberry muffin, her book, and her new friends phone number. 

Clary told herself to continue to read her new book, but she got distracted by watching tik toks on her phone, leaving her book forgotten in her bag. It was almost 5 when she realized she should get home to Simon, so they could figure out what to do for dinner. She picked up her bag and her discarded muffin wrapper, and smiled goodbye to Izzy as she walked out the cafe door into the cool autumn afternoon. 

Clary always loved the fall. She loves the feeling of the crisp air on her skin and the way the leaves match her hair. The only fault to fall is the sun setting so early. With her nightmares and new knowledge of demons in the back of her brain, her walk home wasn’t as soothing as they were in the daylight. She felt eyes on her back her entire walk home. She decided that doing a brisk speed walk was the best way to get home fast, so she wouldn’t catch suspicion by running. 

At one moment on her anxiety filled walk home, Clary looked back to realize her worst fear of being followed. She looked to see a boy about her age closely following her movements as she walked. She didn’t catch his face, only the gold streaks of his hair peeking out from under his hoodie. She turned quickly into her apartment building and dashed up the stairs into the safety of Simon laying on the couch once again watching criminal minds. 

“Why so flustered?” Simon asked as he looked over at the out of breath Clary.

“Oh, ya know. Just my neverending fear of accidentally being followed, kidnapped, or murdered on my walk home in the dark.” Clary said as she tried to catch her breath. 

“Well, you’re home safe now. Come and watch tv with me. I have a pizza being delivered that should be here in 20 minutes.” Simon said as he turned his eyes back to his beloved show.

“I swear that’s all you eat.” Clary laughed as she walked back to her room to put on her sweatpants. 

Clary reached her room only to fling her back onto the floor and watch everything in it fly onto the floor. That was, everything but her creepy book. Fear shot through Clary’s veins. She snatched up her back and shoved her hand in every crevice of her bag to find nothing. She dropped on to the floor and checked under her bed and her desk to find nothing. The book was gone. Clary swore she had put it back in her bag when she got up to get her muffin. Clary never forgot things and she never lost things. She knew she put that book back in her bag. Things don’t just disappear out of thin air. The book is gone. 


	4. Chapter 4

Izzy practically skipped into the New York Institute while Jace was trudging behind her. They had completed their mission: talk to the mystery girl who found the book, steal the book, and never talk to mystery girl again. Izzy was so excited to tell Alec about their success, but Jace was still disappointed about the lack of action and demon fighting they had encountered that day. Izzy practically threw the book at Alec as she walked into the library. He caught the book with an alarming amount of grace and glared at his sister for being so careless with such a rare book. 

“I see you’ve found the book,” Alec said and he put it down and opened up the front cover. 

“I sure did! We wouldn’t have gotten it without all my hard work,” replied Izzy. 

Jace glowered at Izzy and said, “Excuse me, but I do recall also being with you during the mission, therefore making it our hard work. I specifically remember me being there when I stole the book from the girls bag.”

“Well, you didn’t have to make pleasant conversation with a mundane for 45 minutes. You could have stolen it faster,” Izzy grimaced at the thought of ever having a boring conversation like that again. 

“Guys, you’re both missing out on the part where we got the book after searching for it for so long, so what does it matter who did what,” Alec rolled his eyes at the two of them and their constant bickering. 

“Whatever,” Jace replied. “Would you just open the dang thing already. I want to figure out how to single handedly save the world with the information that’s supposed to be hidden between the ratty covers of this thing.”

Before Alec could even process the thought of reading the book, Jace swept it away from him and started flipping through the pages. His eyes squinted as he tried to understand the text on the pages but he couldn’t make it out.

“I always knew you couldn’t read,” Izy laughed and she took the book from him only to discover that she also could not understand a single word on the page.

“Let me see,” Alec said as Izzy handed him the book for further inspection. “We either all forgot how to read, or this is in some unknown demon language that none of us bothered to learn.”

“Ugh, does that mean we’re gonna have to go through and translate every word of this thing?” Jace cringed at the thought of sitting for hours with such a boring task.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll have Magnus come over tomorrow morning to translate. He knows like every language ever, so he’ll be able to get through it faster than we would have been able to.”

Jace was extremely relieved by this fact and he saw the concern leave Izzy’s face as she realized that she also wouldn’t be tasked with such a boring assignment. Thankfully, Magnus would be able to help them in the morning. 

They were all in agreement that nothing more could be done, so they decided it would be best to order some food and ignore the problem until the next morning. They left the book on the giant wooden table in the library until they could figure out how to use it the next morning. 

“Hey man, at least I’ll get to hang out with my bestie, Magnus, in the morning,” Jace laughed as he walked out the library's giant double doors. Alex promptly swatted him on the head. 

“Ouch.”


	5. Chapter 5

Clary woke up the next morning with the memory of her missing book in the back of her mind. She couldn’t figure out where it could have gone. She decided she was going to go back to the cafe that morning to see if it got stuck between the cushions of the chair she was sitting in. She hoped no one read what was in there, with all the scary demon stuff and all that, she wouldn’t want anyone to burn the book that she weirdly felt attached to. 

Once Clary finished getting ready she grabbed her bag and her keys and walked out her door. When she opened up her bag to drop her keys in it, she saw her lost book laying in her bag just where she put it the day before. Her jaw practically hit the floor and she was stricken with fear on how the book made it back to her bag when she clearly emptied the entire thing out the night before in a desperate attempt to search for it. She shrugged it off, “Probably just another vivid dream,” she said to herself as she walked out of her apartment building. She practically skipped to the cafe, she was so happy that she didn’t actually lose her book, but more importantly she was so excited to finally have a friend that wasn’t Simon who she could hang out with and talk about things other than Criminal Minds and pizza. She made it to the cafe and took a seat in her beloved comfortable chair and waited for Izzy to meet her.


	6. Chapter 6

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE BOOK IS GONE!” The sound of Jace’s yelling echoed down the halls of the institute and woke up Izzy from her peaceful slumber. She immediately yanked herself out of bed and ran down to the library to find Mangus, Alec, and Jace standing over an empty table where they left the book last night. 

“Excuse me?!?!?!” Izzy’s voice came out more like a screech instead of actual words. “How could it have just disappeared.”

Magnus looked bored as he replied, “Well it’s a magic demon book. Did you really expect it to follow your every demand.”

“Well, excuse me. I was unaware that I had to give books specific directions so that they wouldn’t fly away. But my bad, it’s not like it’s an inanimate object or anything.” Jace sneered, obviously upset that he couldn’t get to his definition of the fun part: actually killing demons and saving the world. 

Alec could feel the tension growing from the frustration in the room, “Ok guys, it’s not anyone’s fault. We just need to find out where it went and how we can get it back as soon as possible, and we can’t do that if we’re constantly being snarky with one another.” He turned to Magnus and said, “Do you have any clue where it could have gone?”

“It probably went back to its owner. The book chooses one person who is worthy of reading it and that person becomes its owner. If the book somehow gets separated from its owner it will do everything in its bookly power to get itself back. Do you know who the owner might be?” Magnus replied. 

“Clary.” Izzy said with a groan. “Now I have to go to the plans we set up last night that I was just planning on ditching because we had gotten the book.”

Jace laughed, “Have fun spending your day with the mundane. I’m sure it’ll be thrilling.”

Izzy glared back at him, “Oh, shut up. At least I’m actually helping with this, and not just standing around going through women’s purses.” Izzy then strutted out of the library and practically ran back to her room to text Clary that she was running late.


End file.
